


late night radio

by sventeen



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 11:12:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13145469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sventeen/pseuds/sventeen
Summary: striders have a sleepover at chrono's. silliness ensues.





	late night radio

**Author's Note:**

  * For [galaxyeyedrops](https://archiveofourown.org/users/galaxyeyedrops/gifts).



> this was my cfvg secret santa '17 gift for galaxyeyedrops!

"Are you guys sure about this?"

"Whaaat, you scared?" Chrono jeered, pulling the board out of the box and setting it on the floor between them all.

"N-No!" Taiyou's voice came out a bit more meek than he intended. When the three of them had decided on a sleepover at Chrono's, this particular activity hadn't been on the menu. "W-Well, uh... I mean... I'm not so good with this kind of stuff, is all..."

"Ouija's just a game," Kazuma said. "It's totally fake."

Taiyou nodded slowly as he watched Chrono place the planchette on 'hello.' "If you're sure..." Hesitantly, his fingers joined his teammates' on the planchette.

"So, uh... how do we even work this thing?" Chrono asked.

"Are you kidding?" Kazuma huffed. "This was your idea, and you don't even know how to play?"

"Listen, I know how it's played, I just don't know if you're supposed to like, say some cool magic junk before you start or something!"

Kazuma shook his head. "No, you're way overthinking it. You just start asking questions, like this." He cleared his throat. "Are there any spirits here?"

They all watched the planchette in varying states of suspense... though nothing happened.

"M-Maybe they're busy?" Taiyou suggested.

"Busy doing what?" Chrono asked. "They're kinda dead."

"Uh.... ghost stuff... like haunting houses, I gues--" His sentence ended in a squeak as the planchette moved beneath his fingers, slowly but surely making its way to 'yes.'

"Woah, sweet!" Chrono grinned. "You know how to play Vanguard?"

"Why would a ghost know how to play Vanguard?"

"I dunno how old the ghost is! Maybe they died like a week ago! In a Vanguard related accident!" He looked about the room, as if expecting to just see some spectral entity hanging around. "Hey, how'd you die, anyway?"

"I can feel you pushing it towards the 'V,' Shindou."

"Don't know what you're talkin' about."

Taiyou piped up. "Umm... shouldn't we be a little quieter? What if the ghost thinks we're being rude?"

"Are you afraid of the ghost or do you want to make friends with it," Kazuma asked with a scoff.

"I-I'm just saying--" and his voice became a peep, "what if we make it angry?"

"Hey, guys? Did you see this thing move at all?" Chrono asked, looking down at the board.

The planchette rested on 'M,' definitely not where it had been a few moments ago. Then slowly, so slowly, it seemed to gravitate towards 'U.'

"W-Which one of you is doing that!?" Taiyou cried.

"Don't look at me." Chrono immediately turned his head in Kazuma's direction.

"Hey, it's not me, either! I'm a man of integrity!"

"You weren't a man of integrity 20 minutes ago when you ate the slice of pizza I called dibs on!"

All the while, the board continued to spell-- 'R' 'D'--

"M-Murder..." All the colour drained from Taiyou's face. "I don't think I can take any more of this..."

A silence hung around them. Before Taiyou could excuse himself to the bathroom and then not come back out, Chrono asked another question, expression suddenly intense. "What do you want?"

Creeping around the board, the planchette spelled out another word-- REVENGE.

"Do you know who did it?"

YES.

"Mmm," Kazuma thought aloud, "well, even if you know who did it, how are you gonna get back at them when you're dead?"

Nothing.

"M-Maybe they never thought that far ahead?"

"Bro, did you just ruin this ghost's whole unlife with a single question?"

Then, something. 'Y.' A big something. 'O.' Oh, god, this was a MISTAKE. 'U.'

"HEY DO YOU GUYS WANT TO CARDFIGHT," Taiyou yelled.

The board was shoved unceremoniously back into the box and into the back of a closet, the door of which slammed so hard Kazuma thought he felt the room shake a little.

"Sooooo," Chrono rode to grade 1 and passed.

"So." Kazuma did the same. "12."

"No guard." No trigger. "Howwwww's your brother? 14."

"He's fine. Go for it." A crit-- seriously? "He's been fretting over me ever since he came back, though." Ride. "He even tried to invite himself over with me, but I managed to convince him I'd be okay."

"I can understand why he's worried," Taiyou chimed in from the sidelines. "It feels like solving one problem just created ten more for us."

"You sure he just wasn't wanting to fight me a bunch? 32."

"Jeeze, probably. I didn't realize he was such a fanboy." He laid a few cards between them. "Two."

"Crit." Chrono tapped his vanguard. "All effects."

"I swear to god--"

"Crit," and this one was accompanied by the most shit-eating little smirk Chrono was capable of. "Alll effects."

"Why do I even bother two passing you!? You sacky asshole!"

"Sounds like someone's upseeeeeet."

"Grr-- round 2!"

"I fight winner," Taiyou elected.

By the time they caught themselves yawning, several hours had passed. The little clock on Chrono's desk flashed 2:00 AM.

"Guess we should pack it up, huh?" Chrono scooped all his cards up off the floor.

"Guess so," Taiyou replied with another yawn.

Chrono flipped the lights off and crawled into his bed while Taiyou and Kazuma splayed out on the floor.

Thirty minutes passed. Chrono rolled over.

"Guys, are you still thinking about--"

"The ghost?" Taiyou finished for him.

"You guys wanna, uh, go for a walk, actually?"

"Really? You guys can't sleep because of that dumb game?" Kazuma sat up. "Well... I can't sleep either, so I'll come with you, but it's definitely not because of that, okay?"

"You're so full of crap."

The night air was cool as they followed the sidewalk to nowhere in particular, no sound around them but the one of their own footsteps. None of them had said a word, but the silence was comfortable. Once a playground came into view as they turned a corner, though, Chrono pointed to the jungle gym for all of a half-second before declaring "Race ya!" and breaking into a sprint.

Kazuma grumbled something about An Unfair Headstart before rushing off in the same direction.

Taiyou just kept his pace, laughing as his teammates clambored up the bars like a couple of monkeys, swiping and grabbing at each other in attempted sabotage.

At the end of a heated battle, Kazuma's hand grabbed the top rung first. "Ha! That's what you get for trying to cheat!" He sat down at the very top, and Chrono took a spot right next to him.

"Don't make me push you off."

Taiyou joined them a few moments later. The structure wasn't all that tall, but it still gave them a pretty good view of the next street over, and everything else around them. As the only ones out and about, Chrono thought they felt a bit like conquerers. The playground, the neighbourhood, the night itself-- right now, it was all theirs.

"So what if that ghost possesses me, huh?" Chrono asked.

Taiyou kicked his legs. "Do we have to talk about the ghost more..."

"Well, obviously, I'd cardfight it and get you back," Kazuma said matter-of-factly.

"It's a ghost, not a diffrider."

"Then I guess you'd just be out of luck."

"Wow."

"I guess what I'm saying is--" Kazuma rubbed the back of his head and looked away all of a sudden. "Don't go getting possessed, or diffrode, or, whatever."

"Aw," Chrono leaned in close, "you getting sappy on me here?"

"N-No!" Kazuma leaned back just as far. "It's just trouble I don't want to deal with!"

Taiyou grinned. "I think that's Kazuma-speak for 'Yes! Don't leave us!'"

"Oh my god, you..." Kazuma rubbed his temples before throwing his hands up. "Okay, fine, maybe I was getting sappy! I just... don't want you guys changing into something else on me."

"I won't change if you don't," Chrono said, smile warm.

"Trust me, I don't plan on it."

"Yeah!" Taiyou added. "Whether it's a ghost or a diffrider, I'll tell them nooo thanks!"

"Good, that settles it, then." Kazuma laid back against the bars, and the other two followed suit.

"The sky's really pretty tonight." A flash streaked across the night, and Taiyou pointed it out. "Oh! Look! Make a wish!"

"Pretty convenient we'd see a shooting star right now, huh?" Chrono laughed. "Must mean we're lucky."

"We're gonna knock this Gyze thing out of the park," Kazuma said. "He's gonna regret messing with us."

"Hell yeah! When we're together, nobody can stop us." From between them, Chrono held both his hands up. Their highfives broke the quiet night for just a moment. "... Okay, for real though, it would be kinda cool to help a ghost get justice."

"Can we stop talking about ghosts!?"

Kazuma and Chrono started laughing, and soon, Taiyou couldn't help but join in. Then, they slid off the junglegym and started back to Chrono's.

Whether ghosts or diffriders or gods or monsters-- nothing was going to get in the way of more goofy boardgames, or hours-long playtest sessions, or late-night romps. Nothing was going to get in the way of Striders. They were sure of it.


End file.
